New naira scarcity persists, as banks push out dirty, mutilated notes
Bank workers and customers have lamented the quality of the old naira notes reintroduced into circulation by the Central Bank of Nigeria amidst the gradual disappearance of the new notes.
Saturday PUNCH gathered that bank tellers, who pay cash to customers, and workers in bulk rooms, who collect large cash deposits from depositors, were apprehensive that the dirty and mutilated notes could spread diseases.
A teller at a new generation bank in the Ibafo area of Ogun State, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told one of our correspondents that handling dirty notes was a source of concern to her and her colleagues, especially those in the bulk room.
She stated, “The fear of contracting diseases is real. Following the re-circulation of the old notes, the N1,000, N500 and N200 that we are being supplied to pay to customers are mostly dirty and mouldy. Some of the bundles smell bad and we have returned to wearing nose masks to safeguard our health.
Skip Ad
“Last week, two of our colleagues in the bulk room started coughing and the situation degenerated to the extent that the branch manager asked them to stay away from work so that they could be treated. The affected workers complained of being exposed to mouldy and smelling notes, which they had to sort out.
“What we now do is covering our mouths and noses with face masks. We also keep hand sanitizers in strategic locations. The condition of the old notes makes many people sick and even customers are complaining, but they can’t reject the dirty notes because of the naira scarcity of the past three months.”
A trader in the Abule-Egba area of Lagos, Alhaji Sarafadeen Akanbi, who withdrew N500,000 from over the counter on Thursday, complained bitterly when the cash was handed over to him.
He said, “I urgently need the cash and that’s why I came here. I exploited my relationship with the bank employees, starting from the branch manager, as a highly valuable customer to withdraw N500,000. Though the bank limited other customers to N20,000, I was given the privilege of withdrawing that much.
“However, I was shocked when I was paid in dirty, smelling and mutilated notes. I complained to the manager and he said I could fill the deposit slip and my account would be credited with the amount if I felt dissatisfied as that was what was available. When I decided to sort out the money, I didn’t get up to N150,000 worth of manageable notes and I had to return the rest as the people I want to pay will not accept them from me.”
Many bank customers were still unable to make withdrawals in many branches in parts of Lagos and Ogun states on Friday as some of the lenders claimed that the cash supplied them had been exhausted.
At the Ibafo branches of UBA, Access Bank and First Bank, long queues of customers were seen at Automated Teller Machine galleries, while those who wanted to get into the banking halls besieged the gates.
Those who succeeded in making withdrawals lamented that the old notes were dirty and could spread diseases.
A security guard at the UBA branch informed the restless crowd that only those who wanted to make deposits and sort out failed transactions would be allowed in as the cash for over-the-counter withdrawals had been exhausted.
When one of our correspondents managed to gain access into the banking hall, a senior official of the bank said only N2m was made available for over-the-counter payment and that the amount was exhausted before noon.
The official said, “I am tired of the situation as we face serious pressure from customers, who are desperate to make withdrawals. When we opened in the morning, we were paying each customer N10,000 over the counter and through the ATMs, but when we realised that the money would soon get exhausted, we limited what each customer could get to N5,000.
“However, many customers are not having that as they claim that the CBN has allowed them to withdraw up to N500,000 weekly. While this is true, we can only pay out what we get.”
Asked if new notes were being mixed with the old notes, the banker said, “Where are the new notes? I haven’t seen the new notes in almost a month. They are not being supplied and the few ones paid out before the Supreme Court ordered the CBN to re-circulate the old notes are not coming back into the banking system.”
The branch manager of a Tier-1 bank on Victoria Island, Lagos, told Saturday PUNCH, “Customers can withdraw any amount up to the N500,000 limit set by the CBN for individuals and N5m for corporate bodies from our branch and many other branches on the island. A lot of customers from the Mainland have been coming here to make withdrawals.
“We have not received new notes for over two weeks. I don’t think the new notes are being printed currently. The availability of the old notes is dependent on how much each bank was able to return to the CBN before the deadline, as each bank is being given a percentage of the deposits. Punch
